Right to Work returns Michigan to the people

Union chants echoed off the Capitol dome before the Republican-controlled state Legislature’s courageous vote on the right-to-work bill: “Whose house?” “Our house!”

Not anymore. The Capitol now belongs to all the people of Michigan.

For 60 years or so, labor unions have dominated policymaking and politics in this state. Even as their membership dwindled to a sliver of the work force — 17 percent — their stifling influence over Lansing kept Michigan from adopting the common-sense reforms that would have made it more competitive for jobs and investment.

Competitiveness is what Gov. Rick Snyder is all about. His decision to lead the right-to-work push stemmed from his desire to give Michigan every advantage possible in competing with other states for economic development. It was not, as his critics charge, a capitulation to big money GOP interests or a hypocritical betrayal of his commitment to relentless positive action.

For two years, Snyder has been trying to raise Michigan from the ruins of the union-backed Granholm administration. …And the unions have fought him every inch of the way. They’ve sued him when he tried to save Detroit from fiscal oblivion. They sued him when he sought to bring public employee benefits in line with those of private-sector taxpayers. They hit him with a costly referendum to undo his agenda. They’ve instructed their Democratic puppets in the Legislature and on the Detroit City Council to oppose him on every significant measure he’s offered.

Yet now they claim it’s Snyder who is dividing Michigan. Labor and Democrats had a chance to work with the least partisan Michigan governor ever to fix the state, and instead they chose to fight. And they lost.

They lost in large part because they no longer have the hearts of Michigan’s citizens. Those 83 percent who don’t belong to unions, but have had to live under their political dictates, handed the union’s power-grabbing Prop 2 a huge defeat in November, paving the way for right-to-work.

Michigan residents have watched for decades as union intransigence drove jobs from this state and kept new jobs out. …And they don’t buy that unions hold the key to the middle class.

In recent years, the labor movement has been a primary force in killing middle-class jobs. … Times change. Right-to-work will allow Michigan to change, too — into a state that works for all its citizens.

nfinley@detnews.com